In these pages,
you will meet some of the best and brightest people our Nation has
produced.

The thousands
of individuals who make up the U.S. space program come from many
backgrounds. Some have dreamed of being part of the space program
since they were children, while others have come to their space
careers late in life. All of them share one thing, however, the
desire to be part of something larger than themselves.

We are proud
to introduce to you, the unsung heroes of the American space program.

From
investigating crew health and supporting research on the Russian
Space Station Mir to training John Glenn for a return trip to
orbit and overseeing the STS-107 science mission, Charles has
worked to discover and solve the challenges that will arise
as humans take the next step into space.

As
a young woman, Sharon Cobb became fascinated with materials
when she watched molten metal being formed into huge shapes
at a steel foundry in Birmingham, Ala., where her father worked.
Today, she is the lead scientist developing an important facility
for studying materials in the International Space Station.

"I
like working for NASA because I can be 'out there' -- working
on 'spacey,' cutting-edge technology that makes a real difference
here on Earth," says Elaine Flowers Duncan, project manager
for the Spacelab Pallet at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center
in Huntsville, Ala.

When
Johnson Space Center engineer Michael K. Ewert entered his design
for a solar-powered house in his sixth-grade science fair, he
never dreamed he would some day be designing air conditioning
systems for a human habitat on the Moon.

This
Johnson Space Center engineer is a leading expert in the field
of aircraft structural integrity. He and his team developed
software that predicts the growth of fatigue cracks and structural
failures caused by metal defects.

Bob
Goss, chief engineer of the Flight Projects Directorate at the
Marshall Center, is responsible for the technical success of
several key Marshall Center projects, including its International
Space Station role.

George
Hopson is the manager of the Space Shuttle Main Engine Project
at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. He has worked
for NASA for 40 years, but at the age of 75 he still enjoys
the challenges each new day brings.

White
Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, N.M., is a vital proving
ground for NASA's space flight hardware. Its manager, Steve
Nunez, makes sure its people work safely and contribute to the
future of human space exploration.

NASA
has touched Dr. Shamim Rahman's life for about as
long as he can remember -- or at least as far back as 1969,
when he was glued to the television watching Neil Armstrong
step onto the lunar surface.

David
Reynolds was born with NASA in his blood. His parents worked
to support America's first ventures to space. Now, Reynolds,
a Marshall Space Flight Center engineer, communicates with crews
on the International Space Station, and was the designer of
a "tool holder" that makes space jobs easier and safer.

He
was a fan of the Apollo program. He watched the early launches
on a black-and-white television in a Louisiana classroom. He
dreamed often of space. Barry Robinson never doubted that one
day he would work for NASA. He just never imagined it would
be in Mississippi.

Growing up in Santurce, Puerto Rico, Miguel Rodriguez knew at
age 17 that he wanted to work in America's space program. Little
could he have known then that staying focused on that goal would
lead him to become director of NASA's Propulsion Test Directorate
at Stennis Space Center, where he is responsible for overseeing
the safe operation of one-of-a-kind national test facilities
valued at over $2 billion.

He
fled Castro's Cuba as a child. She made a less dramatic, but
long journey from the Philippines. Their love for art, science
and science fiction brought them together in high school. Now
this married couple works on key NASA programs at the Marshall
Space Flight Center.

Making
sure astronauts stay healthy in space is the job of hundreds
of people at NASA. One of those people is Dr. Scott M. Smith,
the lead for the Nutritional Biochemistry Laboratory at the
Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Susan
Spencer is part of the team that designed, manufactured and
tested the Lightweight Multi-Purpose Experiment Support Structure
Carrier, a cargo container that makes it possible to carry more
science experiments in the shuttle or quickly deliver spare
parts to the International Space Station.

Houstonian
Judy Marie Tate packed up her enormous shoe collection and moved
to Huntsville, Ala., for a one-year stint at NASA's Marshall
Space Flight Center. She supports International Space Station
science activities, acting as a liaison between the lead increment
scientist at Johnson Space Center in Houston and the payload
operations team in Huntsville.

When
looking for a new job, science teacher Debrah Underwood didn't
dream that today she'd be training astronauts to operate cutting-edge
science experiments aboard the International Space Station.
Underwood is Training and Crew Operations Group Lead at the
Marshall Space Flight Center.

As
a lead scientist for the International Space Station, John Uri
makes sure experiments are conducted as planned and that scientists
are satisfied with the operations and results of their experiments.